This invention relates to poultry trays and blanks therefor. The principal types of packaging currently used to display dressed fowl for sale are the styrofoam tray and the Poly bag. Dressed fowl may be placed on a styrofoam tray and the fowl and tray overwrapped (totally or partially encased with a clear plastic wrapping). Unfortunately, however, poultry so packaged has a tendency to shift within the tray and hocking (spreading of the legs) occurs. Hocking is aesthetically objectionable to the consumer and may cause puncture of the overwrap, which, in turn, may lead to contamination. Additionally, because the overwrap conforms to the shape of the chicken, printing the overwrap, such as, with brand information, must be done before wrapping. This requires printing on a plastic film and registering the printed information to the poultry when wrapping. These are difficult and expensive. Finally, a large number of different size styrofoam trays must be available to accommodate the range of poultry sizes.
The Poly bag is a polyethylene bag for containing poultry. Since the bag is not totally transparent, it hinders the consumer's view of the fowl. Furthermore, the bag tends to wrinkle, thus printing on it is difficult to read. Finally, because the bag generally conforms to the shape of the poultry, there can be no stacking orientation. Thus, shipping and display are made more difficult.
Defensive Publication No. T896,016 (Mar. 7, 1972) discloses an overwrapped food package, which, according to FIG. 3, can contain poultry. The package comprises a styrene-thermoplastic tray overwrapped with a polymeric film. The drawings show the tray to be of standard shape, like the styrofoam tray. No means are shown for preventing hocking or puncture by the legs of the poultry.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,536,639 discloses a poultry tray having inwardly-folding flaps that "engage against the legs of the bird in such a manner as to hold the legs in proper relation" (column 1, lines 50 to 52). However, it is apparent that the patent is not concerned with preventing puncture of the overwrap by the ends of the legs because the overwrap is optional and no means of shielding the overwrap from the ends of the legs is disclosed. Additionally, the tray is for display purposes only (column 1, lines 1 to 4), not for shipping.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,987,491 discloses an opaque container for dressed fowl, which container has a transparent window at the top for viewing. The legs of the fowl are contained within the narrower end of the package. There is nothing, however, to prevent shifting of the fowl within the box and, thus, a different size box must be provided for each size of fowl.